The MAGA Future Is Now
Several novels have been written about the future, but they remind me of America today.
I think the main reason they do is because the story lines do not celebrate the betterment of mankind but rather the population’s mindless subordination to those in power. The overwhelming majority of characters in these works and today’s Republicans have sold their souls to a rapacious immoral governance group. The rulers in both fiction and reality have slogans (e.g., Make America Great Again) but everything is just a slogan without thought or substance.
The America they paint is not one of progress but one of toil. Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce, said in an interview that he wants Americans working in “widget” plants for the rest of their lives “and your kids and grandkids can work here.” Of course, Howard, a child of a professor and painter, made his billions on Wall Street and his kids work in the family business too.
It seems that in MAGA America, class is important. If your parents were bricklayers, then you would be a mason. A chef will train little cooks to take his place. Factory drones beget factory drones. It makes the caste system of India look enlightened.
Thea von Harbou’s novel “Metropolis” which Fritz Lang made into a great silent film, traces a world where the working class live underground. They grind away their lives in the caverns of the earth so that the “Founders” and their descendants can live above ground in the sunlight and enjoy a toil-free life. The Trumps, Witkoffs, and Lutnicks live in the light and the rest of Americans work below for them to accrue power and wealth.
MAGA is an ideology (if you can call it that) of subtraction. Instead of a society and world where we expand opportunity, it narrows them. It seeks to limit outside exposure.
Trump doesn’t seem to think the trillions of dollars that Americans export in services mean anything. In his mind, that is of no value. Increasing economic output of thought and science is not the same as mining coal or making steel. Yet for the past 60 years, that is how America has expanded its wealth.
In 1790, 90% of Americans were farmers. They were independent subsistence farmers who not only grew their own food but hunted for their meat, made their own clothes, furnishings, and tools. They had or sold practically no surpluses of crops and the need for hard cash was minimal. The only reason to learn to be literate was to read the Bible.
Today less than 2% of our population are farmers. We are adequately fed and much of the production is exported. In 1790 if it couldn’t be grown on a farm, we didn’t have the product. Today we have fresh fruits and vegetables year-round. Bananas, oranges, and lemons were luxuries…now they are part of our diet thanks to imports paid by selling our intellectual knowhow to the world.
MAGA is the antithesis of free markets. One man decides whether and what things will cost. Smith’s “Invisible Hand” has been replaced not by the “Communist Democrats” but by the supposedly free market Republicans.
And that is the crux of the problem with the nihilistic Trump philosophy. It isn’t rooted in any coherent ideology but rather the cult of the leader. It may be pro EV if it is Tesla, but the president will stop Rivian because they haven’t paid the appropriate tribute. The U.S. is turning into an oligarchy. Favored people and companies may play after appropriate pay to the leader and family.
The Democrats have been around since Jefferson and the Republicans since Lincoln. Through the years, they have adapted their ideologies, platforms, and strategies. The two parties argued about what they stood for. What they never were before was beholden to one person. The membership was not afraid to express themselves and tell the party leaders what they thought.
That is not the Republican Party today. It is just as rigid and fearful of dissent as their Chinese, North Korean, or Iranian counterparts. Dissent is an American right. That is unless you piss off the Dear Leader and his everchanging whims.
MAGA is not long lasting because it is not based on anything substantial. Trump will pass from the scene along with whatever MAGA is. The damage will be long-lasting and perhaps even irreversible. America may never be the same. Perhaps that is the legacy of Trumpism.
